Seabirds are probably at greater risk of suffering the negative impact of oil
spills than most other marine wildlife because they spend
much of their lives in contact with the sea surface and because coastlines,
where seabirds congregate to breed, may receive a build-up of oil via wave and
current action. Indeed, large oil spills killed a dramatic numbers of
seabirds. Hence, direct bird mortality immediately following an oil spill
typically attracts the greatest public and scientific concern. Nevertheless,
delayed (long-term) effects are especially expected in seabirds because they
are long-lived animals and upper trophic level consumers. Thus, seabird
exposure to oil through contaminated sediments or prey items could potentially
elicit adverse physiological responses and birds may be affected indirectly
via habitat change and reduced food availability, which, in turn, have
long-term population consequences.

Three pathways of long-term impact of Prestige oil spill on seabirds at
population level are currently being
detected by our team: